His daughter had received a note from Humphrey alerting her to his plans. Although the La Paz County Sheriff's Department did not immediately rule the death suicide, Humphrey's body was dressed exactly the way 39 of his former comrades had been on the day they died together in Rancho Santa Fe, California in late March, 1997.
His head was wrapped in a plastic bag. A pipe ran from the bag to the exhaust pipe of a nearby car. A note near the body said, "Do no revive." A purple shroud was also found near the body.
Humphrey was reportedly wearing black sweatpants and a black T-shirt with a patch on the sleeve that read "Heaven's Gate Away Team." In one pocket he had a five dollar bill and five quarters, as had the other Heaven's Gate members when they died.
Humphrey had expressed remorse for not joining the other 39 at the time of their deaths. Two months after the original suicides, he attempted suicide along with another former member. While his companion died that day, Humphrey was found by authorities and revived.
As public spokesman for "the Away Team," Humphrey had shown a videotape of Marshall Applewhite at small public gatherings in recent months. During these meetings, he expressed both hopes and doubts about whether there was still time to join his companions. He believed that they had successfully transitioned to a "level above human" and joined "T's Crew" aboard a UFO traveling with Comet Hale-Bopp.
"We're not saying that the window of opportunity is closed, but I'm definitely not saying that it's still open," Humphrey had said. Apparently he was willing to risk the odds.
Original file name: CNI - Heaven's Gate Death
This file was converted with TextToHTML - (c) Logic n.v.